On his fourth visit to the track Spirit Of Zebedee took his record there to 1,1,3,1 when winning a sprint handicap on Friday’s card. In doing so he became our first flat winner of 2019. We have been quiet with runners so far this year and Spirit Of Zebedee was only our tenth starter of the season on Friday. I hope this win can set the ball rolling for us now for the season although in truth I wouldn’t anticipate the yard getting busy with runners until the middle of April once the turf season is fully up and running.

Spirit Of Zebedee showed good early speed from the gates and was one of the pacemakers in the first half of the race. At halfway Jason Hart made what I felt was a race winning move when just taking the horse back a touch. If he had kept up the early frenetic gallop then I am not sure he would have had much left in reserve at the finish.

Kicking for home off the final bend Spirit Of Zebedee was a length down but was still in with a chance. He then showed a really good attitude to battle between two horses and hit the front. He surged clear inside the last furlong before the cavalry came from behind. In the end his winning margin was a diminishing short head.

There are a couple of races back at Lingfield next month and it may well be that one of them will be Spirit Of Zebedee’s next port of call.